Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!!!!
Photo by K.S . 2017
Sunday, 24 December 2017
Tuesday, 21 November 2017
How to Rule Mankind
“The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
― Ayn Rand
Thursday, 7 September 2017
Thursday, 27 July 2017
The EU’s FP: Towards the Middle East and Ukraine
The European Union was created in the consequences of the Second World War. After the WW2, the EU member states devoted to working together for peace and prosperity. The Schuman’s Plan first resulted the Coal and Steel Community of 1951, and later the Treaties of Rome 1957. The Treaties of Rome make no mention of EU foreign policy, because the development of a common policy positions has always been one of the big issue. E.g. there is a historical example in the failure of the French Assembly to ratify European Defence Community (EDC) in 1954. Then EU foreign policy effectively removed from the agenda of the European Integration. During the 1970s, the EC members took steps to co – ordinate their foreign policies in the framework of the European Political Cooperation (EPC). In 1973, an ineffectiveness of EPC become obvious, when the EC wanted to negotiated with the US through EPC. The EC had failed to create a single voice of Europe, with whom for example Henry Kissinger could negotiate. Despite that the EU has proved to be effective in mobilising shared position of the member states in pursuit of their common economic interests, It has been so difficult to develop the common foreign policy. However, in 1992, the Maastricht Treaty established, the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The Treaty also introduced common positions and joint actions. The Amsterdam treaty of 1997 also reformed CFSP and empowered defence policy particularly with regard of armaments. However, the treaty clearly stated that EU ‘’ policies must not jeopardize NATO.” As Barry Posen pointed out there also was ‘’a concern that straightening the EU could be seen as balancing against the US.’’ Under the Amsterdam Treaty, the Union created the post of High Representative for the CFSP to represent EU on foreign policy issues. In 2011, European External Action Service (EEAS) established. Today, the High Representative for the EEAS and CFSP of the EU is Federica Mogherini. One of the most important achievements of the CFSP is the expansion of membership into Central and Eastern Europe. After the end of the Cold War, the EU (based the Neighbourhood Policy) as a soft power was effectively involved in measure to promote regional cooperation in the economic and political fields in the Central and Eastern Europe. The EU borders have been extended to include the space of the ex – Soviet Union. Between 1991 - 2013, the EU quietly and effectively became larger and integrated. The Union rebuilt the peaceful – non-aggressive political environment in Europe, bringing freedom, peace, security, and prosperity. The EU’s influence on peace and security, since 1945 is the Union’s proudest and biggest legacy. In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for it. The EU diplomacy and the process of enlargement has worked remarkably well until the Ukraine Crisis. Relations between Ukraine and the European Union (EU) are shaped through a foreign policy instrument of the EU: the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). In 2007, the EU started preparing an Association Agreement with Ukraine and completed it in 2012. In 2013, under Russian pressure, the EU Association Agreement was rejected by Viktor Yanukovych. In 2013, The pro - European Ukrainians went out on the streets to protest against Yanukovych’s decision. The peaceful protests turned into a Russian backed civil war. Yanukovych fled to Russia and the EU-Ukraine association agreement, signed in March 2014, by Petro Poroshenko. The EU policy had been a defensive response to Ukraine Crisis. In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea, and the US and EU rejected aggressive action with Moscow. This is because, during the Ukraine Crisis, EU governments were deeply divided about taking action against Russsia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. However, later under the US pressure, the EU imposed economic sanctions as ‘’a necessary evil’’on Russia. Europe needs to wake up and recognize that it is under attack from Russia, and by providing security for Ukraine, the EU provides security for itself.
In April 2014, Kiev and Crimea agreed a Ceasefire in the Belarussian capital Minsk. In January 2015, the Minsk Protocol had completely collapsed. On 12 February 2015, the new "Minsk II" agreement was signed between the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine in Minsk. Today, EU closely observing the implementation of the Minsk agreement, an effort to settle the conflict that has killed more than 9, 000 people since 2014. The humanitarian situation also remains serious in Ukraine. More than 3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. The EU has kept the humanitarian aspects high on its agenda. According to Democracy Watch, ‘’in 2016, the EU Commission have committed to "supporting the Ukrainian people,’ the Union provided financial assistance of €1.8 billion’’. In 2016, following eight years of negotiations, the EU and Ukraine have signed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). On 11 May, 2017, the European Union has adopted a visa-free travel for Ukrainians.
''Neorelism argues that the events in the Ukraine are a product of a liberal Internationalist dogma. The offensive realists, John Mearsheimer in the Chicago University speech argued that the ''West not Putin is responsible for the Ukraine Crisis. However, for Constructivists, the Ukraine Crisis is all about social interactions. Constructivists argue that the Ukraine crisis is not the fault of the West or Russia, but a consequence of changing relationships between the West, Ukraine and Russia.
The European Union also plays an important role in the Arab World. The Union’s strategic and economic interests have historically upended questions of human rights and democracy in Arab states. EU’s policies towards the Region is mainly framed by the EU-Mediterranean Partnership and by the EU Neighbourhood Policy. However, since 2011, the Arab Spring forced the EU to rethink foreign policy attitudes towards the Region, because of the EU’s security was affected by the refuge crisis and home-grown terrorism. The EU has not played a major foreign policy role during the Arab Spring, because of a lack of common political will and vision. For example, in Libya, European countries were in the lead, but the EU was not. The military intervention in Libya, led by France and the UK, and commanded by the US and NATO. However, the intervention involved no ground forces, and terrorists gained ground and Libya has turned into chaos. The Syrian conflict, despite having a direct impact on EU has also failed to attract significant EU interests beyond economic incentives, humanitarian, and planned reconstruction support. In the Syrian conflict the US and EU failed to fill the power vacuum, and Russia and Iran have replaced the EU and the US. The conflict has metastasized into a regional disaster, with depressive consequences in Europe. The EU also was not able to find a solution to the Refugee crisis, because of a lack of common vision. Right now, the EU is almost nowhere. And in Iraq, there seems to be no EU at all.
The Union’s capabilities is limited, the EU is a soft power, not a hard military power. Despite this the EU continues to carry out some small military operations. For example, in Libya (EUFOR Libya) from 2013 to present day. A border monitoring mission between the Gaza and Egypt from 2005 to present, and the EU Police Mission to Afghanistan, (EUPOL Afghanistan), from 2007 to present.
As this essay suggests, my assessment of European Union’s foreign policy is mixed. The EU is able to act with a single and effective voice on some issues but not others. For example, the EU’s policies was not effective towards the Arab World, because of a lack of common political vision. However, when it comes to Ukraine, the EU’s record in Ukraine was mostly one of success. During the Ukraine Crisis, the EU’s economic sanctions were imposed on Russia. Also, in 2016, the EU and Ukraine have signed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and recently EU has adopted a visa-free travel for Ukrainians. Despite all efforts, today the EU is not a very effective foreign policy actor. The EU needs to use its economic capabilities and policies in order to promote a strong common foreign policies. However, I strongly believe that as long as the EU member states retain their full foreign policy capabilities an effective European policies will not emerge and the effectiveness CFSP will remain low.
In April 2014, Kiev and Crimea agreed a Ceasefire in the Belarussian capital Minsk. In January 2015, the Minsk Protocol had completely collapsed. On 12 February 2015, the new "Minsk II" agreement was signed between the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine in Minsk. Today, EU closely observing the implementation of the Minsk agreement, an effort to settle the conflict that has killed more than 9, 000 people since 2014. The humanitarian situation also remains serious in Ukraine. More than 3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. The EU has kept the humanitarian aspects high on its agenda. According to Democracy Watch, ‘’in 2016, the EU Commission have committed to "supporting the Ukrainian people,’ the Union provided financial assistance of €1.8 billion’’. In 2016, following eight years of negotiations, the EU and Ukraine have signed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). On 11 May, 2017, the European Union has adopted a visa-free travel for Ukrainians.
''Neorelism argues that the events in the Ukraine are a product of a liberal Internationalist dogma. The offensive realists, John Mearsheimer in the Chicago University speech argued that the ''West not Putin is responsible for the Ukraine Crisis. However, for Constructivists, the Ukraine Crisis is all about social interactions. Constructivists argue that the Ukraine crisis is not the fault of the West or Russia, but a consequence of changing relationships between the West, Ukraine and Russia.
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| Federica Mogherini at Arab League summit, 2017 |
The European Union also plays an important role in the Arab World. The Union’s strategic and economic interests have historically upended questions of human rights and democracy in Arab states. EU’s policies towards the Region is mainly framed by the EU-Mediterranean Partnership and by the EU Neighbourhood Policy. However, since 2011, the Arab Spring forced the EU to rethink foreign policy attitudes towards the Region, because of the EU’s security was affected by the refuge crisis and home-grown terrorism. The EU has not played a major foreign policy role during the Arab Spring, because of a lack of common political will and vision. For example, in Libya, European countries were in the lead, but the EU was not. The military intervention in Libya, led by France and the UK, and commanded by the US and NATO. However, the intervention involved no ground forces, and terrorists gained ground and Libya has turned into chaos. The Syrian conflict, despite having a direct impact on EU has also failed to attract significant EU interests beyond economic incentives, humanitarian, and planned reconstruction support. In the Syrian conflict the US and EU failed to fill the power vacuum, and Russia and Iran have replaced the EU and the US. The conflict has metastasized into a regional disaster, with depressive consequences in Europe. The EU also was not able to find a solution to the Refugee crisis, because of a lack of common vision. Right now, the EU is almost nowhere. And in Iraq, there seems to be no EU at all.
The Union’s capabilities is limited, the EU is a soft power, not a hard military power. Despite this the EU continues to carry out some small military operations. For example, in Libya (EUFOR Libya) from 2013 to present day. A border monitoring mission between the Gaza and Egypt from 2005 to present, and the EU Police Mission to Afghanistan, (EUPOL Afghanistan), from 2007 to present.
As this essay suggests, my assessment of European Union’s foreign policy is mixed. The EU is able to act with a single and effective voice on some issues but not others. For example, the EU’s policies was not effective towards the Arab World, because of a lack of common political vision. However, when it comes to Ukraine, the EU’s record in Ukraine was mostly one of success. During the Ukraine Crisis, the EU’s economic sanctions were imposed on Russia. Also, in 2016, the EU and Ukraine have signed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and recently EU has adopted a visa-free travel for Ukrainians. Despite all efforts, today the EU is not a very effective foreign policy actor. The EU needs to use its economic capabilities and policies in order to promote a strong common foreign policies. However, I strongly believe that as long as the EU member states retain their full foreign policy capabilities an effective European policies will not emerge and the effectiveness CFSP will remain low.
Saturday, 22 July 2017
Tuesday, 18 July 2017
Freedom of speech is under danger, that means all human rights are under danger!
K. S
Dance To Freedom
You live as long as you dance.
- Rudolf Nureyev
- Rudolf Nureyev
Jackie and Bobby Kennedy' with the Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev' :))
Me... and The streets of London (Photos).
Me and a friend of mine with the statue Charlie Chaplin in Leicester Square.
Covent Garden, London, UK.
17. 07. 2017
The Cambridge in Soho, London, by photo K. Shiuka
17. 07. 2017
London, by photo K. Shiuka
17. 07. 2017
London, by photo K. Shiuka
17. 07. 2017
Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Parajanov
"Always with huge gratitude and pleasure I remember the films of Sergei Parajanov, which I love very much. His way of thinking, his paradoxical poetical...ability to love the beauty and ability to be absolutely free within his own vision. "
-- Andrei Tarkovsky
-- Andrei Tarkovsky
Parajanov's restored Sayat Nova
Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker
Sunday, 25 June 2017
Friday, 26 May 2017
Saturday, 20 May 2017
If I lay here
''If I lay here, If I just lay here. Would you lie with me, and just forget the world?''
Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars.
Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars.
Chasing Cars
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
Klaus Nomi
* I think opera music is very conservative,
and Rock and Roll music is conservative as well,
and that's why I'm trying to make a bridge between these two elements.
* I approach everything as an absolute outsider.
It is the only way I can break so many rules.
Klaus Nomi
Wednesday, 10 May 2017
Meeting with the UN Secretary-General
Meeting with the UN Secretary-General, London, 2017
Photos by K. S
Photos by K. S
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, giving his first speech in London, at Central Hall Westminster. recorded by me.
After the meeting. Me with friends are in a cafe near with
the Central Hall Westminster, London.
Thursday, 4 May 2017
Thursday, 27 April 2017
Trafalgar Square, London. 23 April 2017
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The sculpture of the mermaids and dolphin in Trafalgar Square, London.
Photo by K. Siuka. 23 April 2017
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The scene from the Trafalgar Square, London.
Photo by K. Shiuka. 23 April 2017
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| London From the Waterloo bridge, by K. Shiuka. 23 April 2017 |
Monday, 17 April 2017
Friday, 7 April 2017
The Rest Is Silence
The Rest Is Silence
From pure sensation to the intuition of beauty, from pleasure and pain to love and the mystical ecstasy and death — all the things that are fundamental, all the things that, to the human spirit, are most profoundly significant, can only be experienced, not expressed. The rest is always and everywhere silence.
After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
When the inexpressible had to be expressed, Shakespeare laid down his pen and called for music. And if the music should also fail? Well, there was always silence to fall back on. For always, always and everywhere, the rest is silence.
The Benedictus. Blessed and blessing, this music is in some sort the equivalent of the night, of the deep and living darkness, into which, now in a single jet, now in a fine interweaving of melodies, now in pulsing and almost solid clots of harmonious sound, it pours itself, stanchlessly pours itself, like time, like the rising and falling, falling trajectories of a life. It is the equivalent of the night in another mode of being, as an essence is the equivalent of the flowers, from which it is distilled.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
--- ''Music at Night' and Other Essays'' (1931)
From pure sensation to the intuition of beauty, from pleasure and pain to love and the mystical ecstasy and death — all the things that are fundamental, all the things that, to the human spirit, are most profoundly significant, can only be experienced, not expressed. The rest is always and everywhere silence.
After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
When the inexpressible had to be expressed, Shakespeare laid down his pen and called for music. And if the music should also fail? Well, there was always silence to fall back on. For always, always and everywhere, the rest is silence.
The Benedictus. Blessed and blessing, this music is in some sort the equivalent of the night, of the deep and living darkness, into which, now in a single jet, now in a fine interweaving of melodies, now in pulsing and almost solid clots of harmonious sound, it pours itself, stanchlessly pours itself, like time, like the rising and falling, falling trajectories of a life. It is the equivalent of the night in another mode of being, as an essence is the equivalent of the flowers, from which it is distilled.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
--- ''Music at Night' and Other Essays'' (1931)
Wednesday, 5 April 2017
The US Congressman and me....
With The US Congressman Victor H. Fazio. We had some discussion about the freedom of press and the new Trump Administration's anti - media rhetoric, and so on...
Wednesday, 29 March 2017
M and B diplomacy
Sunday, 26 March 2017
Happy 60th anniversary to the European Union!
Happy 60th anniversary to the European Union! ✌️ <3 ☮ 🇪🇺
The European Union nations and top officials marked the 60th anniversary of Treaty of Rome, the 60th birthday of European Union. The Treaties of Rome were signed on 25 March 1957 by France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. On 25 March 2017, the leaders of the European Union met in Rome on Saturday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the bloc’s founding treaty and demonstrate that the EU can survive the impending departure of major power Britain. The UK poised to start divorce proceedings, the 27 remaining European Union nations put pen to paper Saturday in Rome to renew their vows for continued unity in the face of crises that are increasingly testing the bonds between members. At the end of the session, all 27 leaders signed the Rome Declaration saying that "European unity is a bold, farsighted endeavor" and "we have united for the better. Europe is our common future," the declaration said. Jean Claude Juncker said "Our parents and grandparents founded this Union with one common vision: never again war. It was their strong conviction that breaking down barriers, working together and not against each other makes us all stronger. History has proven them right."
Since the end of the Cold War, EU quietly and effectively became more larger and integrated. The EU was able to act with an effective single voice on some foreign
issues for example; The one most important achievement of the CFSP of the EU is the expansion of membership into Eastern Europe. The EU as a soft power was effectively involved in measure to promote regional cooperation in the political, economic and cultural fields in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Czech Republic. The EU boundaries has been extended to include the space of the ex - Soviet Union. EU began with the six state, and in 2013 grew to 28, with population over 500 million. One of the main successes of the EU was the building of a non-aggressive political environment in Europe. The EU effectively rebuilt the peaceful Continent, bringing freedom, peace, security, and prosperity. The EU 28 Member States benefits greatly from the two greatest achievement of the EU - Peace and the Single Market. The EU’s influence on peace and security, since 1945 is the Union's proudest and biggest legacy. In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace, security, reconciliation, democracy, pluralism and human rights in Europe..
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| 25 March 1957 |
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| 25 March 2017 |
issues for example; The one most important achievement of the CFSP of the EU is the expansion of membership into Eastern Europe. The EU as a soft power was effectively involved in measure to promote regional cooperation in the political, economic and cultural fields in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Czech Republic. The EU boundaries has been extended to include the space of the ex - Soviet Union. EU began with the six state, and in 2013 grew to 28, with population over 500 million. One of the main successes of the EU was the building of a non-aggressive political environment in Europe. The EU effectively rebuilt the peaceful Continent, bringing freedom, peace, security, and prosperity. The EU 28 Member States benefits greatly from the two greatest achievement of the EU - Peace and the Single Market. The EU’s influence on peace and security, since 1945 is the Union's proudest and biggest legacy. In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace, security, reconciliation, democracy, pluralism and human rights in Europe..
Monday, 20 March 2017
Life While-You-Wait, by Wisława Szymborska
Life While-You-Wait
by Polish Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska.
* * *
Life While-You-Wait.
Performance without rehearsal.
Body without alterations.
Head without premeditation.
I know nothing of the role I play.
I only know it’s mine. I can’t exchange it.
I have to guess on the spot
just what this play’s all about.
Ill-prepared for the privilege of living,
I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands.
I improvise, although I loathe improvisation.
I trip at every step over my own ignorance.
I can’t conceal my hayseed manners.
My instincts are for happy histrionics.
Stage fright makes excuses for me, which humiliate me more.
Extenuating circumstances strike me as cruel.
Words and impulses you can’t take back,
stars you’ll never get counted,
your character like a raincoat you button on the run –
the pitiful results of all this unexpectedness.
If only I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,
or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!
But here comes Friday with a script I haven’t seen.
Is it fair, I ask
(my voice a little hoarse,
since I couldn’t even clear my throat offstage).
You’d be wrong to think that it’s just a slapdash quiz
taken in makeshift accommodations. Oh no.
I’m standing on the set and I see how strong it is.
The props are surprisingly precise.
The machine rotating the stage has been around even longer.
The farthest galaxies have been turned on.
Oh no, there’s no question, this must be the premiere.
And whatever I do
will become forever what I’ve done.
by Polish Nobel laureate Wisława Szymborska.
* * *
Life While-You-Wait.
Performance without rehearsal.
Body without alterations.
Head without premeditation.
I know nothing of the role I play.
I only know it’s mine. I can’t exchange it.
I have to guess on the spot
just what this play’s all about.
Ill-prepared for the privilege of living,
I can barely keep up with the pace that the action demands.
I improvise, although I loathe improvisation.
I trip at every step over my own ignorance.
I can’t conceal my hayseed manners.
My instincts are for happy histrionics.
Stage fright makes excuses for me, which humiliate me more.
Extenuating circumstances strike me as cruel.
Words and impulses you can’t take back,
stars you’ll never get counted,
your character like a raincoat you button on the run –
the pitiful results of all this unexpectedness.
If only I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,
or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!
But here comes Friday with a script I haven’t seen.
Is it fair, I ask
(my voice a little hoarse,
since I couldn’t even clear my throat offstage).
You’d be wrong to think that it’s just a slapdash quiz
taken in makeshift accommodations. Oh no.
I’m standing on the set and I see how strong it is.
The props are surprisingly precise.
The machine rotating the stage has been around even longer.
The farthest galaxies have been turned on.
Oh no, there’s no question, this must be the premiere.
And whatever I do
will become forever what I’ve done.
An Anthem Against Silence
Anthem Against Silence 1914
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Wilcox was an American poet.
To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle. Press and voice may cry
Loud disapproval of existing ills;
May criticise oppression and condemn
The lawlessness of wealth-protecting laws
That let the children and childbearers toil
To purchase ease for idle millionaires.
Therefore I do protest against the boast
Of independence in this mighty land.
Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.
Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.
Until the manacled slim wrists of babes
Are loosed to toss in childish sport and glee,
Until the mother bears no burden, save
The precious one beneath her heart, until
God’s soil is rescued from the clutch of greed
And given back to labor, let no man
Call this the land of freedom.
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Wilcox was an American poet.
To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle. Press and voice may cry
Loud disapproval of existing ills;
May criticise oppression and condemn
The lawlessness of wealth-protecting laws
That let the children and childbearers toil
To purchase ease for idle millionaires.
Therefore I do protest against the boast
Of independence in this mighty land.
Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.
Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.
Until the manacled slim wrists of babes
Are loosed to toss in childish sport and glee,
Until the mother bears no burden, save
The precious one beneath her heart, until
God’s soil is rescued from the clutch of greed
And given back to labor, let no man
Call this the land of freedom.
Thursday, 16 March 2017
Silence and Powerlessness Go Hand In Hand ( R. S)
Silence and Powerlessness Go Hand In Hand
Rebecca Solnit
Silence is golden, or so I was told when I was young. Later, everything changed. Silence equals death, the queer activists fighting the neglect and repression around Aids shouted in the streets. Silence is the ocean of the unsaid, the unspeakable, the repressed, the erased, the unheard. It surrounds the scattered islands made up of those allowed to speak and of what can be said and who listens.
Silence occurs in many ways for many reasons; each of us has his or her own sea of unspoken words. English is full of overlapping words, but for the purposes of this essay, regard silence as what is imposed, and quiet as what is sought. The tranquillity of a quiet place, of quieting one’s own mind, of a retreat from words and bustle is acoustically the same as the silence of intimidation or repression, but psychically and politically something entirely different. What is unsaid because serenity and introspection are sought and what is not said because the threats are high or the barriers are great are as different as swimming is from drowning. Quiet is to noise as silence is to communication.
The quiet of the listener makes room for the speech of others, like the quiet of the reader taking in words on the page, like the white of the paper taking ink. “We are volcanoes,” Ursula Le Guin once remarked. “When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.” The new voices that are undersea volcanoes erupt in what was mistaken for open water, and new islands are born; it’s a furious business and a startling one. The world changes. Silence is what allows people to suffer without recourse, what allows hypocrisies and lies to grow and flourish, crimes to go unpunished. If our voices are essential aspects of our humanity, to be rendered voiceless is to be dehumanised or excluded from one’s humanity. And the history of silence is central to women’s history.
Words bring us together, and silence separates us, leaves us bereft of the help or solidarity or just communion that speech can solicit or elicit. Some species of trees spread root systems underground that interconnect the individual trunks and weave the individual trees into a more stable whole that can’t so easily be blown down in the wind. Stories and conversations are like those roots.
Being unable to tell your story is a living death, and sometimes a literal one. If no one listens when you say your ex-husband is trying to kill you, if no one believes you when you say you are in pain, if no one hears you when you say help, if you don’t dare say help, if you have been trained not to bother people by saying help. If you are considered to be out of line when you speak up in a meeting, are not admitted into an institution of power, are subject to irrelevant criticism whose subtext is that women should not be here or heard.
Stories save your life. And stories are your life. We are our stories; stories that can be both prison and the crowbar to break open the door of that prison. We make stories to save ourselves or to trap ourselves or others – stories that lift us up or smash us against the stone wall of our own limits and fears. Liberation is always in part a storytelling process: breaking stories, breaking silences, making new stories. A free person tells her own story. A valued person lives in a society in which her story has a place.
Violence against women is often against our voices and our stories. It is a refusal of our voices, and of what a voice means: the right to self-determination, to participation, to consent or dissent; to live and participate, to interpret and narrate.
Sometimes just being able to speak, to be heard, to be believed, are crucial parts of membership in a society
A husband hits his wife to silence her. A date rapist or acquaintance rapist refuses to let the “no” of his victim mean what it should, that she alone has jurisdiction over her body. Rape culture asserts that women’s testimony is worthless, untrustworthy. Anti-abortion activists also seek to silence the self-determination of women. A murderer silences forever.
These are assertions that the victim has no rights, no value – is not an equal.
Other silencings take place in smaller ways: the people harassed and badgered into silence online, talked over and cut out in conversation, belittled, humiliated, dismissed.
Having a voice is crucial. It’s not all there is to human rights, but it’s central to them, and so you can consider the history of women’s rights and lack of rights as a history of silence and breaking silence. Speech, words, voices sometimes change things in themselves when they bring about inclusion, recognition: the rehumanisation that undoes dehumanisation. Sometimes they are only the preconditions to changing rules, laws, regimes to bring about justice and liberty.
Sometimes just being able to speak, to be heard, to be believed, are crucial parts of membership in a family, a community, a society. Sometimes our voices break those things apart; sometimes those things are prisons.
And then when words break through unspeakability, what was tolerated by a society sometimes becomes intolerable. Those not impacted can fail to see or feel the impact of segregation or police brutality or domestic violence; stories bring home the trouble and make it unavoidable.
By voice, I don’t mean only literal voice – the sound produced by the vocal cords in the ears of others – but the ability to speak up, to participate, to experience oneself and be experienced as a free person with rights. This includes the right not to speak, whether it’s the right against being tortured to confess, as political prisoners are, or not to be expected to service strangers who approach you, as some men do to young women, demanding attention and flattery and punishing their absence.
Who has been unheard? The sea is vast, and the surface of the ocean is unmappable. We know who has, mostly, been heard on the official subjects; who held office, commanded armies, served as judges and juries, wrote books, and ran empires over past several centuries. We know how it has changed somewhat, thanks to the countless revolutions of the 20th century and after – against colonialism, racism, misogyny, against the innumerable enforced silences homophobia imposed, and so much more. We know that in the US, class was levelled out to some extent in the 20th century and then reinforced towards the end, through income inequality and the withering away of social mobility and the rise of a new extreme elite. Poverty silences.
Silence is what allowed predators to rampage through the decades unchecked. It’s as though the voices of these prominent public men devoured the voices of others into nothingness, a narrative cannibalism. They rendered them voiceless to refuse and afflicted with unbelievable stories. Unbelievable means those with power did not want to know, to hear, to believe, did not want them to have voices. People died from being unheard.
If the right to speak, if having credibility, if being heard is a kind of wealth, that wealth is now being redistributed. There has long been an elite with audibility and credibility, and an underclass of the voiceless.
As the wealth is redistributed, the stunned incomprehension of the elites erupts over and over again, a fury and disbelief that this woman or child dared to speak up, that people deigned to believe her, that her voice counts for something, that her truth may end a powerful man’s reign. These voices, heard, upend power relations.
A hotel cleaner launched the beginning of the end of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s career. Women have ended the careers of stars in many fields – or rather those stars have destroyed themselves by acts they engaged in, believing that they had the impunity that comes with their victims’ powerlessness. Many had impunity for years, some for lifetimes; many have now found they no longer do.
Who is heard and who is not defines the status quo. Those who embody it, often at the cost of extraordinary silences with themselves, move to the centre; those who embody what is not heard, or what violates those who rise on silence, are cast out.
By redefining whose voice is valued, we redefine our society and its values.
Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/08/silence-powerlessness-womens-voices-rebecca-solnit
Rebecca Solnit
Silence is golden, or so I was told when I was young. Later, everything changed. Silence equals death, the queer activists fighting the neglect and repression around Aids shouted in the streets. Silence is the ocean of the unsaid, the unspeakable, the repressed, the erased, the unheard. It surrounds the scattered islands made up of those allowed to speak and of what can be said and who listens.
Silence occurs in many ways for many reasons; each of us has his or her own sea of unspoken words. English is full of overlapping words, but for the purposes of this essay, regard silence as what is imposed, and quiet as what is sought. The tranquillity of a quiet place, of quieting one’s own mind, of a retreat from words and bustle is acoustically the same as the silence of intimidation or repression, but psychically and politically something entirely different. What is unsaid because serenity and introspection are sought and what is not said because the threats are high or the barriers are great are as different as swimming is from drowning. Quiet is to noise as silence is to communication.
The quiet of the listener makes room for the speech of others, like the quiet of the reader taking in words on the page, like the white of the paper taking ink. “We are volcanoes,” Ursula Le Guin once remarked. “When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.” The new voices that are undersea volcanoes erupt in what was mistaken for open water, and new islands are born; it’s a furious business and a startling one. The world changes. Silence is what allows people to suffer without recourse, what allows hypocrisies and lies to grow and flourish, crimes to go unpunished. If our voices are essential aspects of our humanity, to be rendered voiceless is to be dehumanised or excluded from one’s humanity. And the history of silence is central to women’s history.
Words bring us together, and silence separates us, leaves us bereft of the help or solidarity or just communion that speech can solicit or elicit. Some species of trees spread root systems underground that interconnect the individual trunks and weave the individual trees into a more stable whole that can’t so easily be blown down in the wind. Stories and conversations are like those roots.Being unable to tell your story is a living death, and sometimes a literal one. If no one listens when you say your ex-husband is trying to kill you, if no one believes you when you say you are in pain, if no one hears you when you say help, if you don’t dare say help, if you have been trained not to bother people by saying help. If you are considered to be out of line when you speak up in a meeting, are not admitted into an institution of power, are subject to irrelevant criticism whose subtext is that women should not be here or heard.
Stories save your life. And stories are your life. We are our stories; stories that can be both prison and the crowbar to break open the door of that prison. We make stories to save ourselves or to trap ourselves or others – stories that lift us up or smash us against the stone wall of our own limits and fears. Liberation is always in part a storytelling process: breaking stories, breaking silences, making new stories. A free person tells her own story. A valued person lives in a society in which her story has a place.
Violence against women is often against our voices and our stories. It is a refusal of our voices, and of what a voice means: the right to self-determination, to participation, to consent or dissent; to live and participate, to interpret and narrate.
Sometimes just being able to speak, to be heard, to be believed, are crucial parts of membership in a society
A husband hits his wife to silence her. A date rapist or acquaintance rapist refuses to let the “no” of his victim mean what it should, that she alone has jurisdiction over her body. Rape culture asserts that women’s testimony is worthless, untrustworthy. Anti-abortion activists also seek to silence the self-determination of women. A murderer silences forever.
These are assertions that the victim has no rights, no value – is not an equal.
Other silencings take place in smaller ways: the people harassed and badgered into silence online, talked over and cut out in conversation, belittled, humiliated, dismissed.
Having a voice is crucial. It’s not all there is to human rights, but it’s central to them, and so you can consider the history of women’s rights and lack of rights as a history of silence and breaking silence. Speech, words, voices sometimes change things in themselves when they bring about inclusion, recognition: the rehumanisation that undoes dehumanisation. Sometimes they are only the preconditions to changing rules, laws, regimes to bring about justice and liberty.
Sometimes just being able to speak, to be heard, to be believed, are crucial parts of membership in a family, a community, a society. Sometimes our voices break those things apart; sometimes those things are prisons.
And then when words break through unspeakability, what was tolerated by a society sometimes becomes intolerable. Those not impacted can fail to see or feel the impact of segregation or police brutality or domestic violence; stories bring home the trouble and make it unavoidable.
By voice, I don’t mean only literal voice – the sound produced by the vocal cords in the ears of others – but the ability to speak up, to participate, to experience oneself and be experienced as a free person with rights. This includes the right not to speak, whether it’s the right against being tortured to confess, as political prisoners are, or not to be expected to service strangers who approach you, as some men do to young women, demanding attention and flattery and punishing their absence.
Who has been unheard? The sea is vast, and the surface of the ocean is unmappable. We know who has, mostly, been heard on the official subjects; who held office, commanded armies, served as judges and juries, wrote books, and ran empires over past several centuries. We know how it has changed somewhat, thanks to the countless revolutions of the 20th century and after – against colonialism, racism, misogyny, against the innumerable enforced silences homophobia imposed, and so much more. We know that in the US, class was levelled out to some extent in the 20th century and then reinforced towards the end, through income inequality and the withering away of social mobility and the rise of a new extreme elite. Poverty silences.
Silence is what allowed predators to rampage through the decades unchecked. It’s as though the voices of these prominent public men devoured the voices of others into nothingness, a narrative cannibalism. They rendered them voiceless to refuse and afflicted with unbelievable stories. Unbelievable means those with power did not want to know, to hear, to believe, did not want them to have voices. People died from being unheard.
If the right to speak, if having credibility, if being heard is a kind of wealth, that wealth is now being redistributed. There has long been an elite with audibility and credibility, and an underclass of the voiceless.
As the wealth is redistributed, the stunned incomprehension of the elites erupts over and over again, a fury and disbelief that this woman or child dared to speak up, that people deigned to believe her, that her voice counts for something, that her truth may end a powerful man’s reign. These voices, heard, upend power relations.
A hotel cleaner launched the beginning of the end of IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s career. Women have ended the careers of stars in many fields – or rather those stars have destroyed themselves by acts they engaged in, believing that they had the impunity that comes with their victims’ powerlessness. Many had impunity for years, some for lifetimes; many have now found they no longer do.
Who is heard and who is not defines the status quo. Those who embody it, often at the cost of extraordinary silences with themselves, move to the centre; those who embody what is not heard, or what violates those who rise on silence, are cast out.
By redefining whose voice is valued, we redefine our society and its values.
Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/08/silence-powerlessness-womens-voices-rebecca-solnit
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